Sushi Sunday

As a part of our one year wedding anniversary, I bought Trevor and me a sushi 101 class. The class was informative, fun, and made us realize that making your own sushi isn’t only easy, it’s significantly cheaper than going out. Everything I know about sushi, I learned from Carl’s class. I’m sharing with y’all only a fragment of this information. I don’t want to ramble too much on how amazing Carl Rosa’s class was, so, I’ll just go ahead and leave his link here if you’re interested…Sushi 101 Class

If you do end up taking Carl Rosa’s class, be prepared to realize how little you actually know about sushi! Also, the class is BYOB.

Sushi Ingredients and fun facts:

This type of sushi is called nigiri. Nigiri means “grab,” so this particular sushi is meant to be eaten with your hands, not chop sticks.

Sushi rice (We use Nishiki brand for sushi rice. We bought it on Amazon. Because Amazon has everything. Nishiki Sushi Rice. Rice is the most important part of sushi. You can’t have good sushi without good sushi rice. The definition of sushi IS “cooked, vinegared rice.” RICE IS EVERYTHING!)

Sushi grade fish (Don’t just pick up any old fish and attempt to eat it raw! Sushi grade fish has been previously frozen to kill any parasites. So there is no such thing as “fresh” sushi. You wont be able to find sushi grade fish at most grocery stores. I bought mine from 99 Ranch Market in Houston. You can call ahead to your local fish supplies to see if they carry sushi grade fish.)

5. Wooden or plastic paddle (This will be used to mix the sushi seasoning into the rice. A metal spoon, paddle, or bowl will react with the vinegar and tarnish the flavor of your rice.

6. Rice cooker (It’s a must for sushi.)

7. Wasabi and soy sauce if you’d like.

Step 1: Wash that sushi rice! Sushi rice has to be cleaned first. (crazy stuff, I know) Start with two cups of rice and rinse the sushi rice in cool water. Rinse and swirl the sushi rice till the water is clear. It may seem like a lot of work but the cleaner the rice, the better it will taste. I’ve half-assed this part before and the rice didn’t have the best flavor or have the same sticky texture that you expect from good sushi rice.

Here are a couple of examples of unclean and more cleaned sushi rice. It was difficult to photograph cleaned sushi rice in the colander so I showed the rice in two mason jars.

Unclean VS. more cleaned sushi rice

Step 2: This part isn’t difficult. Place equal volumes of cleaned sushi rice and water into your rice cooker: two cups of cleaned sushi rice and two cups of cool water. The bag may say something different. Ignore the directions. I’m right. They are wrong.

Set a timer when you flip the switch on your rice cooker to “cook.” Ha. When the switch pops to “warm,” look at your timer and allow your rice to warm as long as it cooked. Hopefully, that made sense. This rice took about 20 minutes to cook. I let my rice warm for 20 minutes. So, the rice was in the rice cooker for a total of 40 minutes.

Step 3: This part is my favorite!! Slice your sushi grade fish into strips. I used tuna and salmon. make sure your knife has been sharpened. If you’re new to sushi, I feel like salmon is an easy transition into it. The taste isn’t too strong (and it’s likely familiar) and the salmon texture just kinda melts in your mouth.

Here’s a bunch of pictures of sliced salmon and tuna. I went a little crazy with the photos. I actually have 20 more pictures of salmon and tuna. Salmon and tuna couldn’t take a bad picture if it tried. It’s.just.perfect.

Take the rice out of the rice cooker and place it in a wooden or plastic bowl with a wooden or plastic paddle or spoon. The instructions on the sushi seasoning say to use five tablespoons per two cups of rice. I use two-three. It’s just a little to salty in my opinion to use five tablespoons, but, you do you, boo!

Mix it lightly. Don’t go stir crazy. heh heh

Wait 5-10 minutes to let your rice cool a little bit more or you’ll burn the crap out of your hands! Not that I’ve done that or anything…;)

Step 5: Now to assemble your nigiri! Yay!

Have a bowl of water at your sushi making station. If your hands are not wet the rice will stick to them. I seriously forget this step every time and I think, “Why the heck is the rice sticking to my hands?!”

Spoon half a palm-sized amount of rice into your hand. Well … that was awkward to write. If you can think of a better way to say that, let me know. Then you’ll want to gently compact the rice using your palm and right index and middle finger. That was awkward again! I’m sorry guys … I’m failing at trying to explain this. #sushinoob #iwishiwascoollikeCarlRosa

If you want to use wasabi, remember to place a small amount on the fish and spread it with your fingers. If you put it one the rice the wasabi won’t spread evenly and you’ll end up getting a deathly bite.

I hope y’all enjoyed this post and I hope I explained everything well enough. If you have any questions, please let me know. Or if you have any interesting information about sushi let me know! The hubby and I really want to take Carl’s sushi 102 class to learn more.

I know I’ve been MIA for a few months. I started working full time and then we were getting ready for the holidays so I neglected my blog. One of my many goals for 2016 is to do at least one blog post every month!Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see on the blog! My mom wants me to put my liquid laundry detergent recipe up so I’ll be working on that next weekend!:)

We had a blast when we did it! I highly recommend taking his class. He also emails everyone notes from the class so you can relax during. There’s usually good deals on Groupon, but you have to book a month or two in advance. He fills up pretty quickly. We made nigiri and three different sushi rolls when we went. 🙂

I’m glad you thought so! 🙂 It was a little awkward trying to explain everything. I’ve since also heard nigiri means “grip” referencing how they’re made. So I’m not positive it’s meant to be eaten with your hands. I think I’ll shoot Carl the Sushi Guru an email and ask his thoughts. I’ll edit the post with his response.
Thanks for sharing that article! I didn’t know that ordering tuna or heavier fish indicates being done with the meal! I’m definitely guilty of that one! 😬